Knight of the Cross (High concept)Michael knelt down next to John Henry’s battered form and held out a piece of ancient splintered wood. “It is never too late to find redemption. This was once a part of the Cross used to destroy the last embodiment of hope for this world. You must remake it just as you must reforge your own soul to be an instrument of God.”

Reformed Denarian (Trouble)Nicodemus sneered. “‘Reformed Denarian’? Throw away the coin now and you will never find peace on this world. We will tirelessly hunt you down like a dog until we destroy everything you have ever loved.”

Slave to no manJohn Henry met Nicodemus’ gaze with steely defiance. “I’ll never bow you to you, even if it costs me my life.” The scars on his back from years of whippings still burned. “I am slave to no man.”

Never forgive. Never forget.They say that a man finds peace over time through granting forgiveness to those that wronged him and injustices done him. Though the hatred that burns within him would slowly poison his soul, John Henry vowed that day to never forgive his enemies. To never forget what they did to him."

Unquestioning faith.He leaped face first through the second story window in pursuit of the vampire, shards of broken glass tearing bloody gashes in his arms and face. As he landed in the alley, he could feel his ankle give way and couldn’t help but wonder why unquestioning faith always seemed to lead him to make bad—and painful—decisions.

Always repay your debts. (Guest star)And here he was in yet another one of Sam’s scrapes that could easily be his last. When you always repay your debts you often end up being the one to pay the ultimate price, he mused.

When all you have is a hammer… (Guest star).. All of your problems look like nails. Subtlety was not one of John Henry’s strong suits. The thunder crack of his Hammer of the Cross as it obliterated the front door of the Red Court safe house guaranteed that his companions would not have the advantage of surprise. Mason face-palmed and lamented silently that when all you have is a righteously forged hammer of God and an unwillingness to compromise, all of your problems start to look like nails.

Skills

Skill

Value

Athletics

Fair (+2)

Conviction

Superb (+5)

Craftmanship

Fair (+2)

Discipline

Good (+3)

Endurance

Great (+4)

Fists

Fair (+2)

Intimidation

Fair (+2)

Might

Great (+4)

Presence

Good (+3)

Weapons

Good (+3)

Supernatural Powers

Name

Description

Bless This House [-1]

Your faith is proof against the invasion of the supernatural, enabling you to improve the strength of a threshold in a place where you reside. (p. 187)Skills Affected: Conviction.Effects: By your very presence in a place, you may increase the strength of its threshold (page 230)—assuming you have anything to work with (a place without a threshold can’t get one). If your Conviction is higher than the threshold rating of a particular place, the threshold gets a +2 bonus while you are there. Multiple individuals who have this power can stack the effects, making a den of the faithful potentially very safe from supernatural incursion—unless someone’s so foolish as to invite a powerful supernatural creature in.

Guide My Hand [-1]

By giving yourself over to your faith, you may sense the purpose the higher powers have in mind for you, guiding your hands (and your feet) to take you to where you are most needed. (p. 187)Skills Affected: Conviction, others.Effects:
* Faith Manages. Given the time to pray for guidance and provided that your goals are pure
and your actions are selfless, you may spend a fate point to use your Conviction skill instead
of any other skill for one roll. This effect cannot be used for any attacks or maneuvers,
but it can be used to bypass other kinds of obstacles.
* Spiritual Guidance. You have a semi-conscious awareness of where you are needed most.
Usually, this simply means you are guided to the right place at the right time. If the GM
agrees that such a circumstance is in effect, you need not spend a fate point to stage a
fortuitous arrival (page 20). Sometimes this might work in reverse, allowing an ally to
show up where you already are.

Holy Touch [-1]

When acting with a pure heart and selfless purpose, your very touch is harmful to creatures vulnerable to such things.(p. 188)Musts: You must have taken Righteousness (below) in order to take this ability.Skills Affected: Many.Effects:
* Holy Touch. If you act in keeping with your calling, keeping a pure heart and selfless purpose, your touch can be imbued with a holy power. This could qualify your touch as satisfying a Catch (page 185) for the Toughness powers of some creatures. Even if not, creatures that would be an offense to your faith take a 1-stress hit from being touched by you. You could use this with a Fists attack, to have your hands act effectively as Weapon:1 against such creatures. In lieu of this benefit, you may have your touch justify a compel on the high concept of any creature that would be offensive to your faith. This way, you might be able to hold them at bay temporarily or otherwise keep them from attacking you.

Righteousness [-2]

Your prayers have a profound effect. (p. 188) Skills Affected: Conviction, others.Effects:
* Potent Prayer. When pursuing your calling, you may make a prayer (page 324) to guide
your actions righteously—spend a fate point to invoke your high concept and define a
Divinely-inspired purpose you’re aiming at. While in effect, use your Conviction to
complement (page 214) any action that directly addresses your purpose. If you either achieve your purpose, take any compels that would threaten to derail you from your pursuits, or
refuse any compels that are meant to keep you true to your purpose, the effect immediately
ends.
* Desperate Hour. In times of most desperate need, you may call out a prayer for aid from
the Divine. Any time you are hit by an attack that requires you to take a severe or extreme
consequence to avoid being taken out, you may make such a prayer. You may also call
upon this prayer in any scene where a friend, ally, or innocent victim is taken out, forced to
concede, or otherwise suffer a lasting, terrible fate (like being crippled, kidnapped, etc.).
Roll your Conviction as an attack against every non-allied, supernatural creature in
the same zone as you, which can be resisted by their Discipline. This attack does holy,
physical damage that cannot be offset by any supernatural abilities (it automatically satisfies the Catch on any Toughness powers). You can only make one such prayer per scene.

Sword of the Cross [-3]

You possess one of the three Swords of the Cross, their hilts reportedly forged from the nails that fixed Christ to the Cross. Those bearing the Swords are called the Knights of the Cross.Musts: You must have a destiny or calling to inherit the Sword, represented as a high concept or template.Skills Affected: Weapons, others.Effects:
* All Creatures Are Equal Before God. This is the truest purpose of the Swords of the Cross, the ability that makes even ancient dragons take pause when facing a Knight. When
facing an opponent, the Knight may spend a fate point to ignore that opponent’s defensive
abilities (Toughness based ones, primarily), as well as any mundane armor the foe has, for
the duration of the scene. In essence, a Sword of the Cross may take the place of whatever it
is that a creature has a weakness to (whatever “the Catch” is on their Toughness powers, see
page 185), on demand, so long as the Knight can spend that fate point—particularly
handy when facing ultra-tough Denarians or true dragons. Whatever abilities a creature
may have, the job of a Sword of the Cross is creating a mostly even playing field—
or something very much like it—between mortal and monster.
* Divine Purpose. A Sword of the Cross may only be swung with true selfless purpose in
mind and heart; if this is not the case, the bond between the Knight and the Sword is
broken and may only be restored by undergoing some sort of trial of faith. When swung
without such purpose in mind and heart, the blow does not land (any attack roll automatically
fails), the bond is immediately broken, and the sword falls from the wielder’s hand.
Basically, the GM and player should look at the description above as a guideline for
how to compel the high concept attached to the sword—your character might be tempted
to use the sword for selfish reasons, and could either receive a fate point to stay his hand
or succumb to the temptation and lose the sword temporarily. If another takes up the
sword and swings it selfishly, your Knight is still responsible for how the sword is used,
with similar repercussions.
* Holy. This weapon is a powerful holy symbol in its own right. Its very touch is like holy water or that of a cross or other symbol of faith backed by the belief of the possessor.
It’s a Sword. A Sword of the Cross always takes the form of a sword, though the precise
type of sword may change through the ages. There are only three in existence (OW74). As
a sword, it possesses the damage and other attributes of any sword (page 202).
* True Aim. When swung in keeping with its purpose, a Sword of the Cross grants a +1 to
the wielder’s Weapons skill.
* Unbreakable. As an Item of Power, it cannot be broken, save through dedicated magical ritual predicated upon perverting its purpose.
* Discount Already Applied. As an Item of Power, the sword already includes the one-time
discount (page 167). This means that if the character possesses more than one Item of
Power, the one-time discount will not apply on that second item. If the Sword of the
Cross is the second or subsequent artifact the character gains, the refresh cost is –5.
* Creatures only lose one half defense at this level, and it does not grant true aim. (p. 168)

Bio:

5/5/2013
- Calvin is called in to investigate a crime with his partner Dale. The victim is in her 20s and has stitches on her torso with a small trail of blood leading away to a wall. The witnesses, a homeless man and a kid named Buck, are nervous and unhelpful. The homeless man seems to be insane or at least on drugs. He speaks of a red glowing demon in a hood.
- Calvin gets a call from Sam at his law office in Providence. He needs help. A loud crash is heard and his secretary screams. Calvin rallies the rest of the group except for John Henry who has fortuitously showed up on the scene a round before everyone else. He is attacked by an 8 foot tall creature covered in yellow fungus with long dripping nails. He fends it off as best he can until the rest of the group arrives.
- The squirrel hides, Calvin drives his car into it, John Henry hammers away at it, and Oros smashes it with a telephone pole. Once it has been battered sufficiently it reverts into a man with coveralls that indicate he is a part of the sanitation company. The group carries him into the law offices and finds a squid-like creature in his ear. Attempts at removal are met with little success. The mortician is called in but is psychically attacked by the creature and has to leave.

…

- Clear the train tunnels of ghouls. Go to the Never-Never and return with a man named Doll. Eve and Dawn Mason, apparently representatives of two gone-by courts demand this in return for their tears and hair which would cure the man without getting him addicted to Red Court Vampire venom.